Nigerian Govt. Announces Change of Currency | Awolowo | Anti-Biafran Measure | January 1968 скачать в хорошем качестве

Nigerian Govt. Announces Change of Currency | Awolowo | Anti-Biafran Measure | January 1968

January 1968. Footage of the Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Finance, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, announcing the interntion of the Federal Military Government to change the currency. Hundreds of miliions of bank notes would be withdrawn from circulation over a period of 19 days. The measure was an attempt to thart the efforts of the secessionist state of Biafra from buying arms and ammunition abroad. Chief Awolowo claimed that Lt. Colonel Emeka Ojukwu's government had seized around 37 million pounds in Central Bank notes when the secessionist state had proclaimed its existence. He said that the notes were in vaults in Enugu and Port Harcourt. He said that a further 2 million pounds had been seized by the breakaway state when Biafran troops had occupied Benin in August 1967. He gave 3 reasons for the currency change: 1. To deprive the existing currency in the hands of the rebels of its purchasing power. 2. To ensure the effectiveness of the ban on currency export. 3. To make it difficult for those who had dealt with the secessionists to make use of the old currency. He claimed that large sums of Nigerian currency had been offered at fantastic discounts to overseas speculators, and that a Lebanese and an American businessman had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in illegal currency activities. Source: Reuters News Archive.